Lift Guide Pivoting for Parking Facility Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
In parking facilities with vertically stacked parking places and a lift system, achieving precise alignment of the lift's guide with the fixed parking place guide is challenging due to height inaccuracies caused by varying vehicle loads and high lifting speeds, leading to misalignment issues.
Innovation Solution
The lift's guide is pivoted about a horizontal axis defined by its support point on the parking place, allowing it to be adjusted into a horizontal position using a pivotal movement, either through lift movement or a dedicated lifting device, ensuring alignment with the parking place guide, even if initially not horizontal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the lift operates at high lifting speeds to reduce conveying times, then productivity is improved, but positioning precision deteriorates due to height inaccuracies
Solution Approach 1:
The guide of the lift is equipped with a pivoting mechanism that performs preliminary alignment adjustment before the pallet transfer operation. By pre-adjusting the guide's angular position to account for expected height variations, the system compensates for positioning errors that would otherwise occur during high-speed operation, thereby maintaining both productivity and precision
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the angular parameter of the guide through pivoting motion. By dynamically adjusting the guide's angle relative to the horizontal plane, the system compensates for vertical position deviations caused by high lifting speeds or varying loads, ensuring accurate alignment with the parking place guide without reducing operational speed
2Adaptability or versatility
If the lift carries various motor vehicles with different loading weights, then adaptability is improved, but positioning precision deteriorates due to height variations
Solution Approach 1:
The guide is designed with dynamic pivoting capability that allows it to adapt its angular position in response to varying load conditions. This dynamic adjustment mechanism enables the system to maintain precise alignment across different loading scenarios, transforming a static, rigid structure into an adaptive component that responds to changing operational requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The pivoting mechanism enables the guide to self-adjust its position based on the actual load conditions. By allowing the guide to pivot automatically or through minimal control input in response to height variations, the system achieves self-alignment without requiring complex external control systems, thereby maintaining precision while accommodating various vehicle weights
3Device complexity
If the guide of the lift is fixed rigidly to the lift, then device complexity is reduced, but alignment reliability deteriorates due to inability to compensate for positioning errors
Solution Approach 1:
The guide system is segmented into a movable guide portion and a fixed support structure. By separating the guide from the rigid lift body and allowing it to pivot independently, the system introduces a degree of freedom that enhances alignment reliability without significantly increasing overall device complexity. The guide acts as an independent, adjustable component rather than a fixed attachment
4Manufacturing precision
If the lift stops exactly at the required height alongside each parking place, then manufacturing precision requirements are reduced, but operation time increases due to precise positioning requirements
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring the lift to stop at a precisely controlled height, the system changes the parameter of the guide's angular position through pivoting. This parameter transformation allows the system to achieve accurate alignment through angular adjustment rather than vertical positioning precision, thereby reducing both manufacturing tolerance requirements and positioning time while maintaining alignment reliability
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables precise horizontal alignment of the lift's guide with the parking place guide, improving the accuracy and reliability of pallet displacement between the lift and parking places, enhancing the efficiency of motor vehicle parking and pallet exchange processes.
Implementation Method 1
the guide of the lift after being set down onto the supporting surface is pivoted about a horizontal parking-place-side pivotal axis, which extends transversely of the displacement direction and is defined by the support point of the guide of the lift on the supporting surface
Implementation Method 2
the guide may be pivoted on the supporting surface about a horizontal pivotal axis, so that by means of such a pivotal movement a guide on the lift may also be positioned precisely horizontally
Data Source
AI summary
A parking facility for motor vehicles having fixed parking places arranged above each other and each having a guide for a pallet that is displaceable along the guide as well as a lift, which is disposed alongside the fixed parking places and which also carries a guide for the pallet is provided. For displacement of the pallet between the respective guides of a parking place and the lift, the lift is stopped alongside a parking place such that the respective guides are aligned with one another. The guide of the lift at its end facing the parking place is supported on a supporting surface connected to the parking place. The guide of the lift after being set down onto the supporting surface is pivoted about a horizontal pivotal axis until the guide of the lift is in a horizontal position.